None Dare
by Dark Puck
Summary: A Dai Li captain and his Fire lover have a talk that turns to treason. Takes place during the occupation of Ba Sing Se; OC-fic


Treason doth never prosper;  
What's the reason?  
For if it prosper,  
None dare call it treason.

-- Sir John Harris

* * *

"Hey, Liu?"

The Dai Li agent looked over at the young man sprawled carelessly over several cushions. Ichiro looked like the noble the Fire Princess had exposed him as, in fine red linens trimmed in gold. He also looked decidedly uncomfortable in those clothes. His hair, however, was as spiky as ever; unsurprising, given the number of times he'd raked his hand through it just in the last hour alone.

Liu raised a querying eyebrow, and the boy went on, "I've seen you wear that ring a lot. It... doesn't really seem a Dai Li thing. What's up with it?"

The Agent took a moment to eye the ring Ichiro meant. Perfectly shaped to his finger and consisting entirely of blue-green stone, it had been a gift from Commander Hyo's young daughter. He smiled unseen, then laid his hand against the stone of the wall.

'Mi-Cha made it,' he told the boy. 'It is one of the copper-stones. Chrysocolla.'

Ichiro blinked and sat up. "It's... very pretty?" His voice was uncertain, and Liu wanted to laugh.

'It is.' He tilted his head to one side, considering how to explain. Finally, his answer appeared on the table. 'Crystals can affect the body and mind. Chrysocolla affects and heals the fifth chakra.'

"Aha. I see."

There was doubt in Ichiro's tone, though he did try to hide it. Then again, the boy was a skeptic, preferring to believe things he could see with his own eyes - _and_ he was Fire. He might never understand the efficacy of crystals.

Liu smiled as well as he could, knowing his eyes would show the expression. 'It is the thought.'

Ichiro pursed his lips in thought, then nodded. "Yes." He paused before asking, "A gift, then?"

Liu nodded. 'She is very sweet.'

"Sounds like." From his tone, it was clear Ichiro thought Mi-Cha was older - and attracted to him. The hint of jealousy was rather amusing, but also a bit endearing. However, though he liked the boy well enough, he wouldn't enlighten him about Mi-Cha without Hyo's consent. Instead, Liu changed the subject.

'It will be good when all of this is over.'

Ichiro tugged at the Fire-style collar covering his throat, then made an exasperated noise and took the shirt off entirely. Liu appreciated this - Ichiro had a rather nice body, after all, compactly muscled like the farmer's son he had claimed to be. "I'll agree with that," he said, tossing the cloth into a corner. "No matter which side triumphs."

Liu didn't answer for a long time.

While it was quite interesting that Ichiro didn't seem to demand or even expect a Fire Nation victory, the boy hadn't thrown in his lot with the Earth Kingdom - at least not completely. For all his dislike of Princess Azula, the reasons behind it were largely personal - and that was quite different than what Liu was used to. In the Earth Kingdom, usually one's enemies were political enemies. Either the Fire Nation was so passionate as to let it get in the way of politics, or Ichiro was just plain unusual.

Ichiro's strange politics aside, however, Liu understood what the boy did not - a Fire Nation victory would be an ugly thing. The Dai Li would have to take... steps to ensure that Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom were not destroyed. Terrible steps with terrible losses, especially for the Dai Li themselves.

'I do not know what we will do if the Fire Nation triumphs,' he lied.

The boy flinched. "Good point."

Liu curled up a little in his chair, tucking his feet beneath him. The silence stretched and grew uncomfortable, then Ichiro stopped tapping his finger against the table and got up. "Want me to make some tea?" When the Dai Li nodded, the boy moved to the stove, setting up everything he would need.

Liu watched him, watched the muscles slide under Ichiro's Fire-pale skin. Ichiro was still parts of a mystery - even though he was a noble, exposed as such by Princess Azula, he looked nearly as unnatural in the clothes of his station as he did in Earth Kingdom greens.

His manner of speaking certainly wasn't like any noble Liu had ever met, and Ichiro had played the peasant entirely too well - and he didn't seem to like the Fire Nation much more than the people of Ba Sing Se.

And the scar on his back, the one that ran from shoulder to opposite hip, hadn't been caused by any blade, nor by fire.

In fact, it rather resembled some of the injuries Liu had seen after the fight in the Crystal Catacombs, caused by the Water Tribe girl...

More mysteries that he might never get the answers to, because Ichiro treasured the secrets he had left.

When Ichiro turned back to Liu, tea in hand, the wall held some new characters.

'The world is out of order. It's been broken since she came.'

"She's good at breaking stuff," Ichiro replied quietly, setting a cup in front of the Dai Li agent. There was no need for a name to be written or spoken. They both knew it was the princess they referred to.

'Let Xiang break her on the rocks,' Liu shot back, the characters appearing as slashes.

"I'd thank him," said the boy, sounding weary as he traced the rim of his cup with a finger. Even a Joo Dee could see that he bore no love for the princess.

'Many would.' The characters were a bit gentler now.

Ichiro sighed and drained his tea as though it was hard-hitting liquor. "I really wish I could get away with challenging her."

_This_ was new.

Liu tilted his head at Ichiro. 'Why not?'

"She's never crossed into territory where I could legitimately do so," was the somewhat cranky reply. "And I can only push her so far."

The Dai Li considered all of this for a moment. 'What would be required for you to legitimately challenge her?' He let the characters appear slowly, as though he only asked of idle curiosity.

Ichiro licked his lips in thought. "The most common is dishonouring me somehow. But that would require me to care."

The boy had good manners, Liu knew. He'd seen them in action. He'd also seen how the boy could deliver offense quite subtly using them. However, Ichiro honestly _didn't_ care if he was insulted. Or at least he didn't seem to find it worthy of an Agni Kai; Liu had a sneaking suspicion that Ichiro preferred to seek vengeance later.

'What else would be on the level of requiring an Agni Kai to settle the insult?' Liu asked.

Ichiro shrugged, and started tapping the table again. "Anything, really. Agni Kais settle insults, disputes, fights over women... Technically you don't really need a reason to challenge someone to an Agni Kai. Hell, Dad and Zhao used to have them just to get chicks."

Liu arched an eyebrow at that - honour duels to attract women? Men of the Fire Nation were insane.

Ichiro didn't elaborate, however, and instead went on, "However, to challenge Azula and have her _accept_ is another matter entirely. From what I understand, Zuko challenged her just before his capture here, and she turned him down."

Liu nodded - the Dai Li involved in that had said as much. It still baffled him, however. How could declining an honour duel _not_ be an insult in and of itself? On the other hand, given some of the other things Ichiro had explained about Agni Kais...

Clearly the Fire Nation was just crazy.

Ichiro sighed as his hand stilled again. "Is there any Earth method of doing this kind of thing?"

'We must do this the Fire way,' Liu told him. 'The path of Earth will destroy us all.'

Fortunately, Ichiro didn't ask for elaboration. "There's the possibility that I might lose," he pointed out instead.

'You will not,' Liu informed him.

"I could," the boy answered, missing the agent's meaning entirely. "I wouldn't be risking only myself in it, Liu."

'Ichiro.' Liu formed his lover's name in the Fire characters that meant _first son_ to make sure the boy was paying attention. 'You would not lose if you fought her in Ba Sing Se.' _T_

_hat_ made Ichiro pause and consider for a long moment. A small smile blossomed on his face. "It would help, too, if _she_ challenged _me_."

Liu could see his point there - if Azula was the one to do the challenging, it would be much harder to accuse Ichiro of conspiracy or treachery. He nodded to show he understood.

Ichiro sighed. "I'd just need to be careful how I did it. Can't make it obvious I'm goading her into it."

The Dai Li didn't respond for a few minutes, thinking. 'If we knew the right ways to push her...' He made the characters appear slowly, stopping the last one midway.

Ichiro made a thoughtful noise and gnawed on his bottom lip. "She's actually got a lot of shiny buttons. The problem with those buttons is that most people aren't in a position to push and get away with it."

'There is always a way,' Liu pointed out, and the boy grinned. "True enough. Hell, I get away with more buttons than most." He began drumming his fingers against the table. "I know she likes to be the best, which is a large part of why she doesn't like me." Ichiro's grin widened. "I'm competition." His fingers stilled a moment, then he added, "Plus she's _really_ not fond of my Lord Father, so I've got that going for me too."

Liu raised an eyebrow, and the boy shrugged. "Politics."

Even now, Ichiro would only reveal so much. He was protecting someone - or more than one person - but from whom? From Azula... or from the Dai Li?


End file.
